Rider Riyasara on Green Diamanth

Player: T'star

Name: Riyasara
Age: 29 (2.13)
Rank: Wingrider

Physical Description: Dark tresses, laced with fire, tumble over slim shoulders. The brazen complexion supports the vaguely feline features, high cheekbones vaulting under deep-set eyes. Pools of cool, dark green, like a forest pond at midnight, peer out from the haughtily canted sockets. Strait nose runs down to the bow shaped mouth. Her jaw line curves to a gentle point. Her diminutive frame is more comparable to a child than adult as she stands significantly under 5' tall. The gentle curves give lie to that illusion, yet still seem incomplete somehow, as if someone had left out the finishing touches.

Personality: Riya is an odd mix of solitude and play, familiarity and nobility. She has had to play many roles and has walked a dangerously fine line most of her life and it has left its mark. She rarely opens up to other people completely, though she's more than amenable to a good time with people she is at least acquainted with.

Growing up as a potential heir to her father's hold meant she was heavily trained in administrative areas, but the constant tension between herself and her sister has made her very wary and reluctant to step forward and use that training overtly. She abhors most forms of manipulation, though doesn't see diplomacy as such.

Gender and sexual preference: female, Heterosexual

Persona's History: Riyasara was born to Sayri and Lord Helansar. Her mother was Barione Hold's bard, a small woman from Nerat. Helansar made no secret of the fact that the child was his, and no secret of the fact he did not intend to take Sayri as his wife, as he was already four turns married to the daughter of another Lord. The woman, Vestra was not thrilled about her husband's flaunting, especially as she had yet to bear an Heir for the hold. Riyasara was born, and her mother died in the process. The Lady Holder was all for fostering her to one of the crafters and having done with it but Helansar was determined to keep the child as a potential Heir, much to his wife's displeasure.

Two turns later, almost to the day Vestra also bore a girl child. The delivery was difficult and while the child was born live the healers told Vestra that she would never bear again. Helansar didn't seem bothered, he had two healthy contenders for heir as it was. He promptly set to planning how to determine which was most fit by /his/ standards.

When Riya was five she began her training. She learned how to read and write, and began to learn her figures. Her father also started laying the ground work for running a hold. He dropped hints to both daughters that the other might be a more suitable candidate for Lady Holder. Helanestra, even at three, reacted badly, and once she, too was allowed to help and study set out to show up her sister.

Over the turns the two were constantly, though rarely openly, at odds. Riyasara was frequently mistaken for the younger due to her painfully diminutive size. Helanestra used this advantage ruthlessly, until Riyasara started asserting herself as her training progressed. Riya proved to be the subtler of the two, and her father deliberately started to cultivate her towards the diplomatic end and her sister more towards the forceful runnings of the Hold.

Riyasara took to spending her spare time with the harpers who helped her cultivate a decent singing voice, and gave her some time away from the political machinations even while giving her insights to them. She approached her father about joining the harpers, after all if she joined a craft that would clear the way for her sister, end the rivalry, and all round straiten things out, right? Only her father forbid her from so much as /suggesting/ such a thing again, and forbade her from associating with crafters in an other than official function. Only the fact that Helanestra had been placed under a similar injunction made the ban tolerable.

Shortly there after her father's gold wher laid a sizeable clutch of eggs. Her father set aside two of the clutch for his daughters, though did not give either a specific egg. Riyasara didn't seem to care, but Helanestra got belligerent about it, loudly declaring she would somehow be getting /both/ of them when her father did hand them out.

Truth turned out to be stranger. Both eggs hatched at the same time and Helansar simply tossed his daughters in the same room with a bucket of meat each and let /them/ sort it out. Not even the two girls were ever certain how it /was/ sorted out but the results were plain. Helanestra wound up with a small gold, and Riyasara an equally small blue. Helanestra's ego swelled, and Riya simply threw herself into her work to avoid her sister, relieved that for the most part they had different duties.

Tensions from this point escalated and the subtle rivalry became more overt. Riyasara became desperate to prove herself either completely worthy or completely unworthy to be her father's Heir, at least then it would be over with! And Helanestra simply sought to advance herself, if it made her rival look worse all the better!

True relief came at age 16 when Riya took up the task of traveling about on minor diplomatic missions for her father. The Hold's location and odd mix of fresh and salt water marshes made for an equally odd variety of flora, including plants that were difficult to get in abundance everywhere else. Riyasara frequently found herself on trips to the Healer Hall on business.

When Barione was invited to attend the hatching Helanestra found, to her abject fury, that Riyasara would be sent rather than herself. The now 15 turn old was livid and made certain her sister knew it, though if she'd known what was to come there she'd have pushed Riya northward with a viciously cheerful heart.

Riya was sitting up front due to her painful lack of height. She'd never have been able to see otherwise. Towards the middle an oddly patterned dragon, dark green and serpentine with a bright diamond pattern running down her back, made strait for the stands tripping at least one boy in the process. When she started to climb, Riyasara heard the oddest voice in her head, {{I can't see you. I know you're there but I can't see you.}}

Riyasara was herded down to the sands and in with the rest of the weyrling class. Helanestra was at once triumphant and enraged. She had won the hold (in her mind), but the conversation held when their father brought her to visit and congratulate her sister some two months later, definitely indicated she felt that had /she/ been there no dragon would have so much as sniffed at Riyasara. To which Diamanth replied that such a feather head was better suited for stew than stewardship. Riyasara laughed, and the visit ended badly.

Riyasara did her best to put the past behind her, and for a while it worked. She found weyrling training no more difficult than what her father had demanded of her, and it was work she was much more willing to do! She found herself slowly developing a crush on the Weyrling Master D'romir. She held her tongue. He had a mate, and she had work to do. One thing nothing could change was the hold Duty had on her. It had been too ingrained into her for too long.

She graduated with full honors, or such that there were, and was easily placed in a wing. She forgot her troubles... until Sparleth and Lyla died and D'romir started to change, the injury to himself and Gorath only aggravating the problem. With all the clarity granted by unrequited affection, she saw what many missed, but was at a loss as to what to do about D'romir's downward spiral. She tried catching him for ordinary conversation, always leaving to wonder if he even remembered she existed after the conversation was over. She never really could bring herself to interfere too much, half convinced she was reading far too much into things... and how could she possibly go to anyone else if she couldn't make herself go directly to him? So she told no one what she suspected.

D'romir was transferred to Southern. Riyasara took several months convincing herself that she'd done what she thought was best, right or wrong. It worked, to a degree. It was almost a turn later that she found herself actually following him, volunteered to replace numbers lost in a particularly bad fall.

She tentatively renewed contact with D'romir and found, to her surprise, that friendship at least was possible, though it never seemed to go very deep. She had just decided to nudge him in that direction when he had been transferred back to Fort. She remained at Southern and got back to daily life. She and Diamanth were viewed as a reliable pair and even periodically subbed in as wing seconds when replacements were needed, though rarely for any great length of time.

Things were going smoothly, to the point she'd managed to forget about her family issues. That is until B'len of Janth transferred to Southern from Ista. She didn't know him, but he definitely knew her. He was her sister's current lover. At first she thought little of it when a mutual friend brought it to her attention. That was long past. Her sister was her Father's Heir so the feud was over. Then she found out from B'len that his father had still not formalized naming an Heir. How he expected /her/ to be considered eligible with a dragon was beyond Riya's understanding, but it fit her father's personality. She found out later that her sister hadn't changed in the slightest either.

She was 27 and by this point there had been 2 turns with B'len in the weyr and nothing more than the statement that her sister still considered her a rival to power. Her father died. Helanestra was made Lady Holder on the assumption that that was her father's wishes, as he had stubbornly refused to /state/ his desires, and there were nieces and nephews as well. As the appointment primarily seemed to prevent contention over the hold and its resources of herbs (which the healers wanted) and exotic fishes (Which the bakers wanted)

Hints were dropped in certain ears. Riyasara /did/ attend her sister's wedding though the welcome was far from warm and she left wondering at the wisdom of the attempt to make peace with her sister. It had been made clear that peace would not be made. Riyasara resigned herself to ignore the matter. She had no intention of interfering in any way with her sister's hold. She forced herself not to think of it as her own anymore as well.

Then Diamanth rose, not an unusual occurrence, but B'len's brown Janth caught her. It was not a gentle coupling. She avoided him after that, but it wasn't always possible. Diamanth had grown fond of Janth, who did not share his rider's malicious streak, and to deal with the dragon Riya had to deal with the rider. A situation made more complicated when Riya realized she was pregnant. The bad situation reached a head when Diamanth flew again four months later. The end result was a miscarriage for Riya and a black eye for B'len and two confused dragons wondering why their riders couldn't just get along.

For the next year Riyasara kept mostly to herself, recovering physically and mentally. Diamanth was subdued for the time, though as Riya's mood picked up so did Diamanth's. Until she was assigned to escort the Tithes from Barione. Her sister refused to send them unless another escort was assigned. Riya had had enough. She'd heard about Mountain Song and had assumed Barione would remain within Southern's protection, effectively putting herself out of her sister's reach. She applied for a transfer and was accepted.

Upon arrival a different sort of complication was realized. The first person she saw as she arrived was the last person she expected: D'romir. Apparently he also had just arrived and Riya discovered he remembered her even after all these years. It was a good beginning. Now as long as she doesn't find out that Barione was placed under Mountain Song's jurisdiction she should be fine.

Less than two weeks after ariving Diamanth flew. In the short version: Gorath caught, D'romir wound up with Riyasara. Riyasara wound up pregnant. She has admited her feelings for D'romir and he has admitted the possiblity of feelings for her, and their friendship at least has deepened.

Her sister Helanestra, however, is less than pleased with recent developments. The Lady Holder of Barione has made less than effective attempts to drive a wedge between Riya and D'romir... An attempt was even made to convince Riya that it would be unwise to have a child. An uneasy stalemate exists between the two.

In the mean time Riyasara has settled well into life at Mountain Song.

Pets:

Name: Kestrel
Species: Wher
Color: Blue
Age: 17
Description: Pale aqua face is marked on either side of the eye by a deep indigo stripe. A matching stripe smudged down his muzzle giving him a hawkish appearance. Hints of red turn sapphire towards purple over the crown of his head in a rich strip that follows his ridges all the way to his shoulders. Teal pools over his shoulders and ineffectual wings wings. The pale aqua and indigo mingle down his short tail in an odd pattern of strips, finally capping it in near black.
Personality: Kestrel is more than a little bit of a feather head, perpetually cheerful, but not overly bright.

Name: Halo
Species: Wher
Color: Gold
Age: Less than 1

Description: Dark amber gold coats the body of this wher evenly. She is large, even for a gold, her stubby wings shapped perfectly if they weren't made for a body much, much, much smaller. They sparkle a rich almost bronzen shade. Amber lightens to pure gold up her neck, and her head and eyeridges are brushed withthe palest hints of blue, as if she were bathed in moonlight.

Personality: She is infinitely patient. Generally good tempered, well... good tempered for a /wher/. She is smart enough to know that sometimes investigating first is the better idea. After all her teeth aren't going anywhere if someone needs to be put in thier proper place. For all her patience and relatively gentle temperment she holds a grudge... the memory of why the grudge exists is not required for the grudge to continue to influence her interreactions with humans, whers, or anything else for that matter.

Dragon Name: Diamanth
Dragon Color: Green
Dragon Age: 12
Dragon Description: This green is extraordinarily long and sinuous, to the point of being serpentine. Dark jade, almost deep enough to be black coats her body from the sharply defined ridges to the pointed tip of her tail. Two bright trails of polished, burnished emerald twine down her back in a sharply defined diamond back pattern down her entire length. Her wings share that patterning though to a much lesser extent, glittering from the emerald flecks that couldn't quite organize themselves into anything coherent.

Personality: Diamanth is protective, with a dry sense of humor. She has something of a superiority complex, in spite of her lack of bulk. She tends to take very little completely seriously. After all could always be worse. She collects proverbs and wise sayings. She also blusters when she finds herself at a loss. She has a very quick temper but seldom holds a grudge. Her temper flares then fades as quickly as it comes. She is a shameless flirt and a tease, but once her loyalty is truly given it is unwavering and fierce. She's definitely not above meddling in the affairs of others... especially her rider.

Strength's/Weaknesses: her sinuous length makes her a great deal more agile than her length would seem to indicate. Though it also lowers her staying power. She has a reasonably good memory but has trouble admitting she's wrong about anything, which can be a problem when she comes to odds with her rider.